detective stories
Sleuth narrative genre
Detective stories are fiction centered on solving a crime, typically a murder, through investigation and deduction.
The genre follows a detective—professional or amateur—as they gather clues, interview suspects, and reason their way to the culprit.
She devoured Agatha Christie's detective stories as a teenager.
Also called mystery fiction or whodunits.
- whodunitCrime fiction identifying perpetrator
- police proceduralCrime fiction emphasizing investigation
- red herringsMisleading clues or information
- smoking gunIrrefutable proof of wrongdoing
- femme fataleTreacherous enchantress
butler did it · sidekick · evidence · noir · alibis · false alibi · justice · clues · cozy mystery · drawing room · locked-room mystery · denouement · criminal mastermind · crime fiction · unreliable narrator · victim · interrogations · forensic expert
- kids' book genresadventure tales, fairy tales, fantasy worlds, classic tales, chapter books
- pulp fictionpulp, pulp fiction, pulp magazines, pulp novels, dime novels
- fictionfiction, novel, novels, novella, novellas
- literaturebooks, book, fiction, poetry, novels
- crime fictionmurder mystery, whodunit, crime novel, mystery novels, crime novels
- legal fictionlegal drama, courtroom drama, crime fiction, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Firm
detective storiesromance novels
Stories centered on courtship
love stories · erotica · chick lit · bodice rippers · family sagas
detective storiesfantasy novels
Stories set in magical worlds
supernatural fiction · magical realism · fairy tales · ghost stories · horror fiction
detective storiestrue crime
Genre covering actual offenses
journalism · news reports · biographies · memoirs · nonfiction